Rapid coach Barisic gives up the role of favourite

Rapid From Thursday (9 p.m., ORF1), Vienna is aiming for entry into the group phase of the Football Conference League for the first time. A year after the embarrassing play-off against FC Vaduz, the Green-Whites face Hungarian representative Debrecen in the third qualifying round, initially in front of their home crowd in Vienna. The role of favorites in the premiere duel lies with the Viennese in view of the quality of the squad and the recent convincing performances.

For the first time in 38 years it comes for Rapid on international terrain again to a meeting with a Hungarian club – on Debrecen the Austrian record champions have never met at all. According to coach Zoran Barisic, Hütteldorfer are aiming for “a good starting position” for the second leg next week. In the fight for promotion, “little things like the condition of the day or luck will be decisive,” as Barisic cautiously emphasized.

Euphoria after the good start to the Bundesliga

Rapid impressed in many areas at the start of the season in the Bundesliga and triggered a cautious euphoria around the club. At the moment the group is “really fun”, Barisic is “tremendously happy” with her. With international business, however, “a new book” is now opening up, before the coming opponent showed up Rapid-Coach warned: “We are playing a top Hungarian club that has a good team and many established players.”

Debrecen secured an international spot as third-placed in the Hungarian league. In the second qualifying round, the team from the east of the country edged out the Armenian representative Alashkert on penalties. Captain Balazs Dzsudzsak is the “be all and end all” and needs special attention. “He is the thinker and leader, exudes a lot of goal risk and can put his team-mates in the best possible light,” Barisic warned of the more than 100-time Hungarian international.

A mammoth task awaits the winner of the third round duel in the play-off with the top Italian club and last year’s finalists Fiorentina. For Barisic, this fact is currently only a side note: “We don’t think about Fiorentina. We’re only concentrating on the present, and that’s called Debrecen.” The anticipation of the international starting signal is great, both among the coaches and the team as well as among the green-white supporters. Around 15,000 tickets had already been sold for the home game on Tuesday. “I hope that we will start with a lot of self-confidence and joy, because every international game is something special,” said Barisic.

The climate within the team is very good, also due to the great start to the season. “When you win, there is an atmosphere that we hope we can continue to carry with us,” explained winger Nicolas Kühn, who confidently entered the European stage after his first Bundesliga brace on Saturday against Altach (4-0). “I feel really fit and I’m in a positive mood for Thursday.”

In addition to Kühn, the other starting eleven players have also been convincing recently. Guido Burgstaller continues to be on target, Thorsten Schick proved to be the ideal assist provider with six assists from the first three competitive games and the green-white back team has only conceded one goal so far. Barisic therefore sees little reason for changes: “It’s quite possible that we’ll see the same starting XI for the third time in a row. The lads have done well recently.”